The Tanner Report

Although one view might be that sloppy defending cost us the points, I blame more Felix Magath for four reasons:

1) he set up the team wrongly in the first half. Riise, a slow left back, cannot play left midfield and Holtby was ineffective on the right;

2) to correct the position, Magath made two substitutions at half time, bringing on Richardson and Dejagah for Riise and Holtby, which resulted in only one sub option when two players (Sidwell and Diarra) were injured;

3) the team look exhausted by the heavy training schedule. Dejagah, who worked hard, failed to track back to block out the cross for the Hull equaliser. His hands were on his knees, he was pumping for breath.

4) if Richardson was unfit to last the game – Magath should have started him and then introduced a more defensive substitution.

Of course any team, let alone one that needs the points so badly, should know how to close out the game with 13 minutes to go. The first Hull goal had a measure of luck, as Reither turned a ball onto the crossbar, but never forget that Hull hit the woodwork twice without scoring and Bent had his chances too.

At least Magath cannot field a passive side and formation next week against Stoke, as one point will not be good enough. He has to go for the win. This will not be helped if Steve Sidwell, arguably our best player, is  unavailable and I hear his ankle was packed with ice after he came off.